The Case for Using Social Networking

Quick Points:

1. Social Networking is here to stay
2. You as a business owner should embrace the concept
3. Remember that Google's idea of search marketing was considered silly 10 years ago
4. The business landscape is changing - Yahoo is researching how to reach social networks
5. Below are 5 essential activities to conduct on either Facebook, LinkedIN, or Twitter
   

For the past three or four months, I have heard rumblings and gripes from many of my colleagues, expressing their frustration with Social Networking, on venues such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN. Many have trouble embracing its business purpose, others consider it a waste of valuable business time, and some feel that it is a fad that will go away soon.

As a web designer for the past 10 years, I have seen many fads come and go ("that was so 15 minutes ago" was a term that was specifically created due to the advent of fly by night web trends), such as hamsterdance.com, flashing banner ads, and Flash games that drop more cookies on your PC than Santa on Christmas Eve. I can assure the skeptics two things: first - social networking is here to stay, and second - those that embrace the concept sooner rather than later will profit from the commitment. To understand why, let's rewind about 10 years to another nifty concept - search advertising.

Google rapidly rose to power despite critical opinion that there is no way to monetize search. 10 years later its advertising delivery system AdWords is still a force to be reckoned with, as Fortune 500's are aggressively making the switch to online advertising, both on Google and its vast partner networks. Just this past year, Proctor and Gamble, one of the most corporate-traditional cultures in the world agreed to an employee exchange program, which helped both Google and P&G profit from each other. The point is that even traditional companies are jumping on a bandwagon that the tech world has foreseen many moons ago.

This morning I was reading an article in Advertising Age, which discusses a study being conducted by Yahoo and several Social Networking startups. The theory is that consumers can be targeted much more effectively by relationships, rather than demographics. So if you are talking with Judy more often than Bill, it is much more likely that you will have similar tastes as Judy does.

What this means for you is that when you study your friends' likes and dislikes on Social Networking sites, you can better understand what they collectively need, and deliver those needs. It is the ultimate open research tool. Further, it is a direct way to develop good relationships with your client base online (as a supplement to in person relationships...not a replacement). As I often quote from Chase Bank, "the right relationship is everything"...a phrase which bears greater merit during our recent financial travails. It behooves you as a business to embrace social networking, so that when new methods of monetizing the concept emerge, you'll be ready to roll.

As I wrote a few weeks back on this blog, the best way to get started is to create profiles at Facebook and LinkedIN. The only initial cost is time, which unfortunately can be sucked from your day quite rapidly if you do not set proper controls and discipline to use the tools effectively. I recommend about 15 minutes a day to start - simply by logging on once a day and updating your status. If you can squeeze in the time, recognize that no man (or woman) is an island, and add a few friends that you know also have profiles. They will also help you during your learning curve.

Here are the top five activities I recommend during your power 15 minutes each day of Social Networking:

1. Update your status at least once a day
2. Add interesting content to your profile that people will read (blog)
   
3. Add friends that you can relate to on both a professional and personal basis
4. Take some time to read other people's profiles, and comment on their statuses
5. Introduce friends of yours to other friends that have similar interests

Try it out for a week. I assure you that you will enjoy it, but also consider how Social Networking can help your clients, and your business in the future.

Tom Ossa
Rockland Web Design
(845) 271 - 4488

PDFs with Video! And Much, Much More!

I just read a story that almost made me cry tears of joy. I hope you will feel the same.

Adobe has just announced it will soon offer users the ability to add video to pdf files!

According to the story, just released at 12:31 pm Monday, Adobe will be updating its Acrobat software with Flash functionality, greater collaboration tools, and a new web-based word-processing suite that stands above both Google and Microsoft online docs.

You can read the full story by clicking here.

I would imagine some of you out there in web-world are thinking to yourselves, "So what?", or "How does this affect me and my company?" Let me explain some advantages, from the beginning to end of your business process:

1. Potential clients will be increasingly impressed with your sales, recruitment, or educational presentations. They will be much, much more interesting and interactive.
2. Your existing customer base can offer more feedback based upon the documents you send them, so that you may refine your business model to reach the next level.
3. Your team will be able to share ideas with each other much easier, using online web meetings, comments and document sharing.
4. After a project is completed, clients can respond to your company with both regular text based, and video-based testimonials.

I can't say I'm surprised that this development has occurred, but I can certainly attest to my happiness at this moment in time. The business community has been in dire need for better tools to get their message out effectively and efficiently, and I believe this is a great step in the right direction by a highly reputable company.

Tom Ossa
Rockland Web Design
(845) 271 - 4488

E- Newsletters: A Business MUST!

By Thomas Ossa
Rockland Web Design
May 28, 2008

There are plenty of reasons to not create a newsletter for your clients on a consistent basis. I hear plenty of excuses: "I don't have the time", "It takes too long to compose", "My customers will get annoyed", "I don't have a good list", etc. etc.

While I readily admit that many of the above concerns are valid points, the negatives in this case most certainly do not outweigh the positives. I can think of no other targeted message that can legitimately reach a mass number of people in a short span of time for the price. In other words, taking 1 hour to compose and send a newsletter to your clients once a week, bi-weekly, or even once a month is quite a valuable practice. In order for it to be effective, however, it needs to be done right.

Here are some tips for reaching your client base in a more effective way through newsletters:

• Have a message, not a sales pitch: When you send out a correspondence, make sure your intent is not solely to sell. Your job is to educate. Rewards come later as a result, but they are quite beneficial.
• Keep it short and sweet: If you are spending more than a half hour composing, editing and sending your newsletter, you've lost half your audience. Ask yourself this question as you write: "Is anyone really going to read this much?" Keep asking until you reach the answer "no", and then wrap it up. Use bullet points, like I am. They are much easier to read.
• Don't oversend or undersend: There is no set standard for newsletter frequency. Each client list is different and unique, and each writer needs to feel out what is an acceptable and useful rate. A good rule of thumb is "no more than once a week, no less than once a month."
• Get permission and feedback: Probably the most overlooked aspect of newsletters is finding out what your clients want to hear about. If they are interested in skin care products, and you are sending them tips on auto repair, you might see your client base shrink over time. A good opening newsletter would be "Welcome...what do you want to hear about?"
• Create a call to action: Simply put, a call to action is an incentive for your readers to do something. It could be answering a survey, singing up for an event, or purchasing a product. While you don't want to sell stuff in the body of the newsletter, you certainly want to offer something that might be of value to the client. So add a little incentive, offer or otherwise, to generate interactivity between you and your people.

Resources:

• Tips for Improving E-mail Marketing Performance
• Top 12 Best Practices for Publishing a Newsletter
• Best Practices for EZine Newsletter Publishing and List Management
• Five Best Practices for E-Zine Newsletters
  

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5 Reasons to Watch Google during the Recession

There are many benefits to having one company in charge of all that is good online, and that one company is the juggernaut known as Google. While advantages are evident, there are obvious detriments that should also be considered as the public and private sectors increasingly favor Google and its wealth of valuable services.

Rockland Web Design has been monitoring the success of the search giant since their inception, and notes that there are some great reasons for businesses to embrace Google, especially in the apparent recession that exists today, but it will be interesting to note what position the company will be in as we emerge from the recession.

Below are 5 reasons to watch Google during the recession. They're not all bad, but there are some concerns:

1. Philosophy: Most people know Google's stated mission to "organize the world's information. On the way, Google's internal directive is, in my opinion, a great way to stay on the right track in order to meet that objective: "Don't be Evil". Apparently this is the company's way of stating that ethics and morals still hold true in our society. While I applaud this effort, I believe that in order for Google to remain faithful to this effort, the general public, as well as shareholders should monitor the company to ensure that top management creates policies that further embrace the "Don't be Evil" philosophy.

2. Ownership: Google is scarily purchasing everything that is vulnerable on the online landscape. A perfect example occurred 5 minutes ago, when I contacted what I thought was the number for a mobile web development company, and recieved a message that I reached a phone number for Google. How many more companies will be assimilated?

3. New applications: Google's home page is just the beginning of it's online world. Take a moment and click on "more". In there you will find Google earth, docs, research, hundreds of applications that make business and personal life more streamlined. Most cost nothing, just the favor of displaying tasteful advertising. More on that in a minute. But one particular application I'd like to mention: the Google Apps suite allows companies to collaborate through e-mail, run an Intranet, share documents and much more! Check it out at Google.com/apps.

4. Terms of Use: a while ago I sat down and read some of the terms of use for Google Apps. While it is a great suite, my concern is a little clause that states that google can essentially assume control of a domain, and make it their own. While the statement was somewhat vague and likely unenforcible, I would hate to think that one day the only way to get a website up and running is to go is to contact one almighty company.

5. Staying Power: Finally, the fact that Google has maintained a great degree of resilience during both the recession scare and the threat of a Yahoo / Microsoft merger speaks volumes to its staying power. I believe that this is a result of its multi-faceted strategy of creating more and more web applications in the interest of further its core competency...effective search advertising.

In short, buy the stock, use the services, and keep both eyes on Google for the foreseeable future.

Tom Ossa
Rockland Web Design
(914) 584 - 6882
Sent from my iPhone